Fallout: Grand Lake
by Der Namenlose
Summary: War is coming to an isolated society, its cultures and people at stake. Ties of friendship and family are put against each other, and a group of friends take it upon themselves to keep invaders out of their home. (Hope ya don't mind hick speak! Lookin' for someone to do the cover image!)
1. Chapter 1

Intro

War, war never changes.

Though many people hid away in great underground sanctuaries, the Vaults, an equal number of hardy people managed to survive through the fires of the Hell that Man had made for itself, and forge new communities.

In an area known before the War as Grand Lake, a handful of towns managed to survive, kept alive by people who sought to reforge old ideals of culture, to the East, there lives the Recks, those who keep to rustic living, to the South, there live a group of people who wished to keep alive the culture of their ancestors, the Cherokees, to the Nortwest lay the Railmen, those who keep an ideal of industrialism in their souls.

Though not without their petty disagreements, these three peoples and the smaller tribes around and between them have all survived and thrived through two centuries of a barren world, isolated due to the help of wildlife, and clever ruses.

Though as has happened before, and will happen again, other tribes and peoples are gathering strength, wishing to build armies, nations, from a former capital arises a nation, born from twisted and misinterpreted ideals, and with them, they bring a great thunder of weapons, and a thirst for conquest.

For though cultures may change, War...

War never changes.

Chapter 1: Calm days

Gene sat on the edge of one of the many broken bridges and fished, killing time until his friend Degataga arrived so he could give him his share of the mail. Gene, Degataga, and two of their other friends all worked on the postal service for Grand Lake, a fairly dangerous job in the days when the animals stomped about, but being late in the fall, many of the animals were sleeping or yet to be hatched.

Gene was a big boy for sure, 20 years old and standing at six-six with his shoes off, though he wasn't terribly muscular due to bad eating habits, forced or otherwise, he had a gruff, ugly face that was set into a half-lidded, frowning gaze when he wasn't speaking to anybody. Physically, he was quick, about the quickest person on the Lake, and he possessed good reflexes as well as great endurance, beyond this though, he bore no physical or mental defects or assets. His most prized-possessions included a .45 caliber pistol that had lasted Lord knows how long, and a Pip-Boy he had found on a dead traveller, though he did not use it, he didn't know how to, it was simply a small comfort. He wore brahmin-hide clothing, with some garlurk-scales serving as some manner of protections along his body.

Gene was in the midst of thinking when he felt a tug on his fishing line, he reeled the fish in, and dropped it in his fishing bucket, the fish had a torn gill, and wouldn't last for long, it was hot, as most summer days were, so Gene cut the fish's head off with his knife, sprinkled some water on the pavement next to him and let the mutated hellfish flop about to cook on the ground.

As he watched the fish gasp for air, head in his hand, Gene felt a rock hit his back, not a large one, but enough to startle him onto his feet, gun at his side, he saw that Degataga was standing with that shit-eating grin on his face.

"Osiyo! Dohitsu?" Degataga said, walking over, he looked at the fish Gene had caught, "Better be careful, some people'd think you were crazy, watching a dead animal."

Degataga was in fairly basic clothing, like Gene was, but without any armor. Degataga was the marksman of their group, he was the shortest as well, at five-nine. Not much else could be said about him, as he kept to himself, apart from his friends and parents.

"Osiyo to you too, jackass!" Gene smiled warmly and rummaged through his backpack, grabbing a stack of letters as well as a package that seemed entirely too heavy for its small size, "Now, remind me, ya smart enough to read two languages? Or do I have to remind ya what English sounds like?""

Degataga smirked and rolled his eyes, taking the letters and package, almost dropping the latter, "Least I can actually speak two languages," he tapped the package, which was wrapped in so much paper it merely made a scratching noise, "Wonder what the Hell's in this thing."

Gene put his hands on Degataga's, covering the package, "Doesn't matter, let's head out, if we don't leave now it'll get dark before we both get back home, I don't wanna slog through garlurks and dogs, do you?"

Degataga pulled his hands away, "Fine, let's head out."

They walked along the road, keeping an eye out for anything dangerous, only once having to hide from anything, a radscorpion, and only because they didn't have any antivenom. Degataga sang some folk song that Gene didn't know the meaning to, and Gene whistled here and there to kill time.

They reached their destination, a town East of the Lake by about 13 miles, the Ville, not many people there, but they were sort of a lookout town that kept their eyes to the East, one of the people in town also had a car he would let people drive up and down the main road, it was mesmerizing to behold, but Gene and Degataga never had enough time to ask to drive it. Gene and Degataga approached the gate to the town, one of the gatewatchers, a man in full armor and with a Pre-War assault rifle that twinkled in the daylight, approached them, his name was Tom, but Gene and Degataga never talked to him, he was a bit too stern about his humor.

Degataga pulled out the heavy package, handing it to the man, "Careful, this thing's got some weight."

Tom took it, and, to Gene and Degataga's irritation, opened it to inspect it, it was a gold box with a tiny lock on it, Tom wrapped it back up, he wasn't a thief, far as the duo could tell, and walked back to get the boys payment, a few hundred caps, and a little surprise from Maude, a nice old woman in town. The surprise was two little meat pies, (or the closest thing Maude could make from what she had and barely legible directions), made from brahmin, in her shop, these things were 20 caps each, according to Tom, the boys hollered "thank you!", on the off-chance Maude was within earshot, and told Tom to give them their formal thanks.

The two walked back to the bridge, and parted ways, but not before Gene saw the rotted and picked at carcass of the fish he had caught eight hours ago. Degataga laughed and called Gene wasteful, Gene gave a mock chase after his friend, who gave a shout of goodbye before disappearing into the forest.

Gene got back home and slumped on to his bed, and had bad dreams, like he did when something bad was gonna happen, and woke up with a headache.

Author's Note: Trying to write something, as I don't think my home state of Oklahoma is in Fallout (or much of anything post apocalyptic for that matter, but I might not be looking too hard.) This was mainly to establish the feel for the story, critiques and impressions welcome.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Big Run

Gene saw fire, strange, short, imp like monsters with guns, and felt sick to his stomach, he fought back, and shot and crushed as many of the imps as he could, until his own arms popped off and his gun disintegrated, so he ran, and turned around to only see Grand Lake dried up, he let out a howl like a wild beast, and

Gene stopped having this nightmare because he was kicked in the side of the head by his best friend.

He woke with the swift kick to the head that his best friend Galegenoh always gave him for important meetings. Galegenoh was from the same town as Degataga, but she was more of a drifter, she moved around Grand lake constantly like some kind of olden god. She was in her metal armor, making her look like a poor imitation of those soldiers in the old pictures that one could find lying around, she was so damn quick the armor was of little hindrance to her movement. Galegenoh was also one hand short of a pair, on the end of her left arm was a stump, though a clean stump, flat, at an angle.

Gene rubbed the side of his head, standing up to get his bearings, "Had a weird dream, killed a buncha things, felt like I lost something, really wanted to punch a wall," Gene stared into space, feeling the dream slip through that spot on his head, "Still do."

Galegenoh punched Gene in the shoulder, and said, "Think on your feet, Big Run's today."

"Right," Gene said, rubbing his shoulder.

Galegenoh is a boy's name, and it means stag, but it's the name she chose for herself, as she read through a pre-war book when she was younger, a children's nature book, and when she read about stags she was enthralled, and declared she would be known as 'stag,' her uncle thought it amusing, and the name had stuck ever since, Gene didn't know her old name.

Gene went to grab the gas-mask he kept under his bed, only to have Galegenoh hand it to him, he took it, and went to grab his rifle, Galegenoh stood at the door.

Gene stood at the doorway, and looked around at his home, iguana and gar and brahmin and dog and the few healthy vegetables that grew around the lake filled the air so much that they left a taste like his home itself was made into a family meal. He looked at all the dilapidated houses and new tents and shanty houses in his hometown, saw Fred and Ursula and Everett and Clark and Johan.

"Ever feel like you need to say goodbye to everybody?" Gene said.

"No, but sometimes I think you're creepy, others share this opinion," Galegenoh said, "let's go, tell me about it later, I wanna head out so I can see my nieces."

The two walked to the outskirts of town, to the caravan that hefted mail around, a bit excessive, according to some towns, but deathclaws were moving in from the north, according to the north towns, and that was reason enough for most people to have more guards.

Gene patted the head of Tricey, one of the brahmin, she was special for having a malformed, pathetic looking third head, it didn't seem to mind, being a brahmin.

Degataga spoke up, "You say osiyo to the brahmin before you say it to me?"

Gene and Galegenoh sat next to Degataga, Gene gave a humored grunt, "Probably because she has three more brains than you do, buddy," Degataga punched Gene in the shoulder, to which the group laughed.

Degataga was carrying his hunting rifle, its appearance hid its deadliness, it was very rusted, but in his hands it never missed.

Galegenoh fought with a hunting rifle, like her friends, and also a ripper for anything else, damn if a missing hand would slow her down.

Gene took the hunting rifle along more for appearance, and carried his pistol in his hands and his rifle on his back.

"Why do you use that ol' pistol again?" asked Mel, a newcomer to the caravan group, he was an average kid, and Gene hated the sound of his tinny voice, but he was alright.

"'Cause I'm good with it," Gene said, "would you be better with a knife you've been using for 10 years or a sword you've had for one?"

Mel walked away, nodding.

"That kid's dumb," Degataga said.

"As what?" Gene asked, "Rocks? Hammers?"

"No, he's just dumb," Degataga said.

Ten minutes later, the rest of the crew had shown up, and those who paid for a brahmin ride to go to other towns, or wherever they felt like stopping off.

"Where's Ezekiel?" Gene asked.

"He's up at Efftoe, with his cousins," Degataga said, "they say they might get one of the cars working if they can find a pump."

"That'd be pretty slick," Gene muttered.

"WE'RE HEADIN OUT!" hollered Mr. Morris, the head of the caravan shouted.

Gene and his friends stood up, workers didn't get to sit while they were moving.

Most of the trip passed without any interruption, the faded green of the sky being a calming sight to many.

"So how's your town spelled again?" Gene asked.

"Eucha," Galegenoh said, "Ooh-chee, why do you keep asking?"

"A's don't sound like e's, that's why."

Degataga laughed, "says the man who's cousin's name ends in an 'i.'"

"Yeah, well, Dorli's weird," Gene said, thinking he saw a dog, "you know she keeps every skin she's collected? Think she's making a couch out of lurk scales."

Degataga eyed Galegenoh, "Gene, have you seen Galegenoh's basement?"

Galegenoh shoved Degataga's shoulder.

They made their way to Efftoe after five hours, which seemed excruciatingly long because some Railman would not stop whistling, Gene prayed for dogs, but they wouldn't show up.

Gene saw Ezekiel sitting outside the old car stop before anything else, the jackass was just sitting next to a streetpole, looking at his nails, his hunting rifle on the ground next to him. He wore a leather jacket that he found in a trunk, a plain shirt, and overalls. He walked with a hunch, though stretched out he was about six-three, a bit taller than Galegenoh.

"Hey, Zeke!" Gene said.

Zeke turned his head, and saw that the caravan was showing up, the people of Efftoe were still in church, so he was alone in the town.

"Hey, Gene! Whole crew here, huh?"

"All two dozen!"

"Well, good news guys! We don't have to haul nothin'! I'm serious this time!"

Mr. Morris got off the wagon he was on and left for the church, a three minute walk, he took one of the trailers they had, which had some basic medical supplies on it, stimpacks and the like, as well as two of the bigger guys under his command, and headed off, shooting a glare at Ezekial.

"I'm serious this time!"

"Saying somethin' twice doesn't make it true," Mr. Morris said.

Ezekial gave a huff and walked over to his friends, the other members of the caravan started playing five-finger fillet.

"How's the family?" Gene asked.

"Grady got hitched to that girl with one eye, Vicky or something, she seems alright, a bit of a... butch, but that's been Grady's thing," Ezekial said, "How are y'all doin'? Dega, I see you've got a new scar."

Gene's head whipped to look at Degataga's face, "Dega, when'd you get a scar?"

Galegenoh spoke up, "he tripped, the earth got a bit angry at him forcing himself upon her."

Degataga gave a half-sarcastic laugh, "Funny, huh, hey! Count to ten on your fingers!"

Gene's eyes widened and his mouth curled just a hair at the joke, "Oh now that's mean!"

Ezekiel put his head in his hands to hide his smile, "What the Hell, Dega?"

The three looked at Galegenoh, who held up her stump, "one, two, three, four, five," she raised up her hand, "six, seven, eight, nine, ten," she said, raising her five fingers.

Degataga cocked his head.

Galegenoh waved her stump around, "Can't you see my hand? Right now it's a fist!" she said, hitting Degataga in the gut with her stump, causing him to double over, Gene clutched his gut in sympathy pain, and Ezekiel doubled over, out of sympathy laughter.

The others in the caravan gave a few stifled chuckles,

Degataga gave a wheeze, "Okay," he said, rasing his hand, "That was mean, I apologize."

Galegenoh grabbed his hand, pulling Degataga up, "I forgive you."

"How cute," Ezekial said, "But Mr. Morris is back, and with an empty cart!" Ezekiel cupped his hands together and shouted at Mr. Morris, "Would I lie to you!?"

They all got ready to head out, making their way towards Ezekial's home, Vinita, remarkable for having the most intact welcome sign on Grand Lake.

"So," Ezekial said, "You guys heard that the Span's been hearing really loud guns at night? They sent a few scouts out, they didn't come back for four hours and said the guns just kept coming from the West."

"Who cares?" Degataga said, "All the radiation keeps people away from the West, we'll be fine."

Gene scratched his head, "What if they got radiation gear? I mean, pop enough rad-x and you can friggin' swim in radiation."

Degataga looked to the sky, "well, then everybody on the Lake'll just shoot 'em, right?"

"We damn well better," Ezekiel said.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Waitin' for it to hit

Vinita was hit by more fallout than any other town on Grand Lake, its Northern side was host to radscoprions, muncher melons, numerous other pests, and the deathclaw, which seemed to be becoming more in number. It never dealt with garlurks, so that was a plus.

While the radiation was a problem, this was tempered by most of Vinita's population being ghouls, they kept to themselves, mostly, superstitions on both sides made sure of that.

As Vinita's road sign came in to view, Degataga asked Ezekiel a question, "So, Zeke, How's your skin fairing?"

Zeke lifted up his shirt, showing off his right side, which was a flaky mess with a bald spot that revealed muscle and veins, "Stings like Hell when I'm not in radiation," he said, picking off a hunk of skin, "but hey, I don't gotta worry 'bout radiation!"  
>"Gross," Gene stated, Galegenoh nodded in agreement.<p>

"Yeah," Ezekiel said with an eye roll, "really inspires confidence for when my face starts fallin' off."

"Masks on!" Mr. Morris hollered.

The buzzing squeaks of rubber and hard plastic hitting each other, punctuated by a curse or two, filled the air and announced to the tollman that he was gonna have a headache.

They ascended the ramp, Simon the tollman greeted them with a half-assed wave.

"Purpose of visit?" Simon asked Mr. Morris.

"Trade," Mr. Morris answered, grabbing the bag of caps he kept for trivial stuff.

"Number of people?"

Ezekiel, impatient, wanting to say hi to his parents and his wife, nudged Gene in the side and whispered, "yeah, I got a two-ton delivery of bullshit, heard the stocks were low."

Gene snickered, "Least it ain't Hunkee."

Ezekiel nodded, one eyebrow raised, "Yeah, yeah."

"Kinda name is 'Hunkee' for a town?"

"Think the signs are all busted or somethin'," Ezekiel said, "Think it was 'Hun Creek'."

Gene narrowed his eyes, "Ain't the Hun's them guys that owned Asia?"

Ezekiel shrugged, "Don't think it matters anymore, nobody owns mucha nothin'."

Gene was about to berate his friend for trying to be a philosopher or some crap, when Galegenoh tapped Ezekial on the shoulder and spoke up, "Zeke, would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Shoot."

"Would you mind going to the library and getting some books for me?"

Ezekiel laughed aloud, "So, cause I'm turnin' ghoul means I'm a radgopher?"

Galegenoh gave a mean look.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Zeke said with a shrug.

Degataga, still nursing his gut punch, chuckled, "What, Gene not your servant anymore?"

Gene and Galegenoh looked at each other, Galegenoh looked away first, "Gene's not a ghoul."

Ezekiel scoffed, "I ain't neither! I'd like to have a kid one day, bein' a ghoul kinda screws that option!" he frowned, scratching the back of his head, "Gene, wouldja mind?"

"We're headin' out!" Mr. Morris shouted.

Gene shrugged, "Whatever, I ain't peeling away like paint yet."

Degataga gave a smirk, "Much as you go swimming it's a wonder you ain't a glowing one."

Galegenoh sighed in exasperation, "I'll go with ya Gene, I got some Rad-X saved up."

Gene shrugged, "Whatever, and Zeke, 'fore ya get mad, it ain't like radiation can kill ya anymore."

Zeke muttered a curse.

After they entered the town proper, Zeke took his share of the mail, stared at Gene and Galegenoh in deep thought, and then said something about time being short before running off in the direction of his wife's shack.

"Good God," Gene said, "Little Zekes, never thought it'd be a possibility."

Galegenoh laughed, stopping herself from saying something.

Degataga looked at his share of the mail, "Well, I'm heading off, I'm with the big mail crew this trip," he said, following the two trailers the crew had.

Galegenoh and Gene headed off, they were with the crew that was delivering to the ghoul part of town, and so they went with them.

The two didn't know any of the ghouls in Vinita, they called themselves Railmen, which, in practice, so many generations ago, meant they were supposed to be hard-working sons of bitches that were gonna start up the American Railways again, then most of them became ghouls, and ghouls can't lift stuff as well as humans.

The Recks, the group Gene was a part of, didn't change much, though in his opinion, it was because they didn't do much that you'd want to change to begin with.

They delivered and stored up all they were supposed to, and so the caravan was told that it would be too late to head to the next town, so they would stay for the night, free to do what they wished, within reason. Gene and Galegenoh headed off out to go book hunting, popping some Rad-X for the trek.

"Gene," Galegenoh said as the first patch of glowing goo came in to view.

"What?" Gene replied, more out of not hearing Galegenoh through his mask than anything else.

"What do you think of my people?"

Gene looked at Galegenoh, who wasn't looking at him when she asked that, and replied, "You're people, same as anybody else we know," he said, "The whole 'women own everything' is weird, but good, I guess, keeps your boys in line."

Galegenoh smirked, "that's not how it works, but-"

"Hey, if you get married, you can just shove your husband's shit outside your house and tell 'im 'good luck!' so don' tell me women don't own everything."

Galegenoh looked at Gene out of the corner of her eye, "Guess we can do that."

Gene laughed, "Ya sure as Hell can!"

"Guess I'd just have to find someone I wouldn't kick out. You ever think about marrying a Tsalagi? Amadahy asks about you a lot."

Gene scratched his head, "Nope."

Galegenoh scoffed, "What, don't wanna marry a Tsalagi?"

Gene shook his head with a very blank expression, "Nope, don't feel like having kids that ain't considered mine."

Galegenoh just shook her head, but stopped halfway through a shake, stopping in place as well.

Gene stopped a step later, "what?"

Galegenoh raised her rifle with a sigh, "Feral."

A crack of her gun and a death rattle rang through the irradiated streets.

"Poor bastard," Gene said, quietly.

"What if Zeke goes feral?" Galegenoh said as she chambered her weapon.

Gene raised an eyebrow, "We'll kill 'im, he'd do it for us, I'd hope."

"Yeah."

A few minutes of silent walking, the occasional spook from seeing a feral that wasn't there, and they were at the library, at the front door stood Olive, the 'librarian' of sorts, sitting in a lawn chair next to a barrel of goo.

"Evenin' y'all," said Olive, "Rats are brave today, I..." Olive trailed off... then stared at Gene and Galegenoh.

"You what?" Gene said.

Olive stared at him with a confused look, "Usually we start with 'hi!' Gene," Olive said.

"You did say 'hi,' Olive."

"I did?! Oh, I'm sorry, are you picking up books again?" Olive said, a little uncomfortably.

"Yeah," Galegenoh said, "We're here to grab some."

"Alright!" Olive said, "Good to see young'uns readin', say hi to Jacques! He's stocking books, probably."

Gene scratched his side, "Olive, Jacques died a long time ago."

Olive furrowed her brow before she remembered, "Oh, right, thanks for tellin' me, some people... some people don't. I guess they forget too."

Olive gazed around, Gene and Galegenoh walked into the library without any more words to give.

They got to the nonfiction section, carefully framed with mountains of ruined books, each of the shelves was sparsely populated with readable books, and they used that word loosely.

"Jesus, Gene," Galegenoh said, "Didja have to remind her that her husband's dead?"

Gene scoffed, "Oh what, you really think 'ignance is bliss?' She's got a right to know the truth!"

Galegenoh grabbed a book on animals, causing it to practically disintegrate, "Well, you know what, she looked hurt when you said that. You wanna be hurt like that? What about your cousin Jennifer?"

Gene shot Galegenoh a look that burned through both their eyepanes on their masks.

Galegenoh matched that, "Yeah, doesn't feel good, huh?"

"...Fuck you," Gene said, "Sometimes I do forget, you know? But that ain't healthy, you know?"

Galegenoh didn't say a thing, finding a book on plants.

"Look, I'm sorry but you oughta be too," Galegenoh said.

"I'm sorry I hurt Olive's feelings," Gene said, finding a book on warfare.

Galegenoh, trying to stop being pissed, laughed at the book, "What, you afraid of them gunshots Zeke was talking about?"  
>Gene chuckled, "Hey, might be handy if those nutjobs on Monkey Island ever get greedy."<p>

"Guess it might, let's head back, I wanna see if Zeke's parents got any good food again."

"You're like a fuckin' dog," Gene said, laughing, "You know that?"

"Oh shut up."

The two walked back without any problems, heading to Zeke's parents house with Degataga and Zeke for a few chunks of brahmin, and then to Zeke and his wife's house for sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Last leg

After a good night's rest (or as good as it could be when you sleep on a floormat) the gang went back to the caravan and headed out to the next town, Span, the Southwestern lookout town, it was a bit of a detour, and didn't really fit with any of the three groups around Grand Lake, and apart from having more guns than people, it wasn't noteworthy, though the people knew a lot about baseball. It had its own lake, but it was barren, poisoned from metals, and so it had little food, even by Wasteland standards, and so relied on trade, mainly guns and ammo for food.

There wasn't a lot to talk about along the way, most the time spent was shooting dogs and the occasional garlurk for some quick food, Mr. Morris smacking one member of the caravan for swinging his gun in front of someone, another one, Gene thought his name was Vernon, had birdshit land on his armor, and another dude's gun backfired about an hour away from Span, had cuts on his finger, but hey, stimpacks are there for a reason.

"Well, Span's gettin' some business, eh?" Zeke said.

"Speaking of which," Degataga said, squinting off down the road, "Who's that?"

"HEEEEEEY!" yelled a voice, Gene squinted, looked like people from Span judging by their clothes.

"Hold up!" Mr. Morris said, stopping the caravan.

It took some time, but the two people came up, looking as scared as deer in headlights, they were young, teenaged, and, completely out of character for residents of Span, had no guns.

"Mr. Morris!" one of the kids yelled, out of breath, "Raiders is," he said, heaving, "They got... they..." the kid promptly vomited, then dry heaved, legs trembling.

"Raiders!" one of kids said, a girl, "But they ain't normal, they dressed like soldiers! They got weird fuggin' guns! They..."

Mr. Morris, being one of the few people still on bad terms with the people of Span, spoke up, "Is this some kinda joke? Raiders?"

The girl looked absolutely infuriated, and hollered with a cracking voice, clearly unfit for her frame, "_I just saw my fuggin' brother get his face burned off!" _she said, before slumping her shoulders down in exhaustion, her voice became soft, still cracking, her legs shaking and her eyes wet with confused tears, "You think we'd run ourselves to puke for a fuggin' joke?!" she said, picking up her dry-heaving friend.

Mr. Morris was taken aback, and then came the uncomfortable murmurs from the caravan, Gene and his friends included, people from Span didn't get scared, just like dogs don't talk, it was like a law of nature.

Mr. Morris snapped himself out of confusion and snapped his fingers at Gene, Galegenoh, Degataga, and Ezekiel individually, "You run like hell to Span, find out what's goin' on, can't be more than an hour walk from here," Mr. Morris said, "now git!" he turned to the rest of the caravan, "Rest of you give these kids some water and make sure your guns are loaded."

Gene and company ran towards Span, guns on their backs, being fast put you on scout duty sometimes, but for once the group of friends had no complaints, all of them took some buffout that they kept for heavy lifting to run faster.

"Jesus Christ, what the fuck's happening to Span?!" Ezekiel said.

"Less talking!" Galegenoh said, "More running, we keep at it we can get there in 5 minutes if the buffout holds up!"

And it did, five minutes later, the group found the Northern entrance to Span without a guard, a seriously messed up sight that they ignored before getting halfway into town, finding dozens of the townsfolk gathered around a man beating the absolute shit out of another man in power armor, sans helmet, off to the side slumped five men in power armor.

And next to them lay two dozen townsfolk, and a bucket full of green goo with a cross painted on it with what looked like blood.

Zeke was ready to start hollering first out of the group, buffout did that to him, but was stopped by a man with an assault rifle on his back and in his hands, "Calm down son, if it weren' him it'd be you," the man looked at the group, Gene recognized him as Everette, leader of Span, notable for having been shot through the jaw once and survived, giving him a sour expression and nothing else.

"You four come with me, I'll fill ya in on it," he said, walking towards a house on the side of the road.

When they got inside, Everette sat down with a creak, unloading his rifle and using it like a cane of sorts when he sat. "I'm sure Jim'll wan' me to tell him when he gets here, but y'all got meth eyes, so I'll see if this calms ya down some;" he said, looking off into space, looking for words in it.

He continued, "Bout an hour ago, these five boys come up to the southern road in power armor, got some of them battery guns they made Pre-War, they seem cagey, and only one of 'em speaks, he's the one that's gettin' whupped on right now," Everette said with a bitter chuckle that lead into a cough, "I don't know what got said, but they started shootin' at us! One of 'em just up and turns the guard, his name was Hank, in to a... a pile a ash... Then another shoots at poor Victor with some green goo and next thing I know he's down on the ground trying to yell but he can't cause his damn mouth's fused shut!"

Ezekiel growled, "So what the Hell's goin' on!?" he practically yelled.

Gene backhanded Ezekiel, "Let the man talk or I'll tan your hide and use it as a water bag!" he threatened. Ezekiel shot Gene a glare which he matched, before muttering something about buffout screwin' with him.

Everette gave a smirk, thinking about how Recks don't change, before continuing, "Well, we heard them boys holler to each other 'bout some bigger group, so we might have something worse to deal with," he stood up, heading over to a pen and paper on his desk, "I got letters to write, and Jim' gonna deliver 'em, not you," Everette said, starting a letter, "just him."

Gene, and for that matter, his friends, were gonna start giving Everette some lip before the door behind them burst open with another resident of Span, who shoved them all aside, he was carrying a power armor helmet with him. Gene's drug-induced stupidity was broken by the sight of the thing, he'd only seen 'em in posters, but there it was, cold black eyes that looked positively uncaring.

"Wha's this say?!" the man said, dropping the helmet in front of Everette, pointing at some letters.

Everette squinted, then widened his eyes, and looked as stone as death.

Everette looked at the man, "I want all them boys weapons checked and cleaned, and then brought back to my house so I can test fire 'em," Everette said, "loot all them bodies and startin' tomorrow we doin' warfare drills, go tell Glen and Jewel '30 years ain't shit to this,' word for word, you hear me boy!?"

The man nodded before running away to carry out his orders.

Everette looked at Gene and his friends, "Make yaself scarce or make yaself useful and help my boys, take one of them goo guns back to Grove so that bastard Follis can have a look."

Degataga spoke, "What about us, yonega? Us Tsalagi left for the wolves?"

Everette looked at Degataga with an ancient evil look in his eyes, "Boy, I just lost a tenth of my whole town to five idiots in power armor, I am _not _the one you wanna piss off right now! "

Degataga was about to speak, but Galegenoh punched him in the shoulder to distract him, then muttered something in Cherokee.

They waited for Everette to finish his letter, when he did, he handed it to Gene, "His eyes only, he oughta be here in 10 minutes, right? Go grab one of them goo guns and then head back to Jim, I got widows and widowers to comfort and an idiot to torture."

Gene nodded, and he and his friends left, Degataga and Galegenoh went and grabbed one of the guns, saying it was on Everette's orders, while Gene and Ezekiel rushed off to Mr. Morris, who opened the note, and then got a look of unease on his face, which Gene didn't think the man was capable of.

Author's note: Moving right along, now we'll start getting somewhere. If anyone happens to have studied Oklahoma Cherokees in any depth, message me if ya would, I lived near some but I don't know much Cherokee that's informal. My Great-Grandma joked that her friends called hippies "tluga dvsgiya" which means tree burners I think. As always: critiques and comments appreciated.

Factoid: What Degataga calls Everette, "yonega," come from the Cherokee word for 'white,' but there's no real cherokee word for "white person," they're all just corruptions of what the Cherokee call themselves; like "Not the Real People," or "Lying People" or something like that, I was never taught these by my Cherokee grandparents because they're apparently very offensive. Another interesting fact about racism; the Swahili word for white man, "Mzungu," comes from a word that means "to run around in circles."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: The pack that slays together stays together

Eucha was a small town before the war, and noteworthy (among the residents) to have been named after a Cherokee chief, it was a half-white half-cherokee town, like the chief it was named after, but after the Great War, it became a wholly Cherokee town run by the fullbloods in residence there, though only three clans still exist there in this day. The landscape of Eucha is basically hollows within hollows, and it isn't a hard job to find all the spent shells and empty beer bottles from the gigging tournament that used to be held there.

Eucha, as it stood, had many facets of Cherokee culture, mainly older ones, one of the funner games that Gene and Ezekiel would play when they got into town every month was betting on whether they'd see a garlurk carcass (or something smaller, if the man was a wuss) outside a single woman's house, this game was of course kept secret from their Cherokee friends.

Gene and his friends were not concerned with that at the present time, as they were more focused on the realization that Everett had neglected to mention anything about telling the Cherokees about the frighteningly well-armed men that had taken out a damned good chunk of the resident well-armed men. Had they been concerned, Gene (being a bit of a matchmaker, in his own head) would have made 20 caps. Galegenoh, being the fastest of the group after buffout wore off, made it into the government building to tell the peace chief what was going on, by the time Gene had caught up, she was already out of the building, goo gun in hand.

With huffs between words, Galegenoh spoke, "Ugvwiyuhi danawa," she caught herself, "Chief says we're goin' to war!"

Gene's eyes widened, "That fuckin' quick?"

"Somethin' bout those raiders from when our parents was kids, don't wanna get caught off guard, other chief and the grandmothers seemed antsy though," Galegenoh said with some hesitation.

Gene was too tired from running to say anything further, he looked behind him into the twisting masses of trees, beginning to wonder when the Hell Ezekiel and and Degataga would show up, when he heard the howl of dogs.

"Oh Good God!" Gene said, worried and annoyed, turning back to Galegenoh, "Look, you stay here, do what you'uns do and I'll be back."

Galegenoh nodded, gulping air, "Sure thing, friend," she said, holding up her stump, before catching herself and making a thumbs-up with her hand.

Gene ran off back through the footpath into the old Haggard farm, over the hills and through some trees until he found the hollow where Degataga and Ezekiel were busy shooting and stabbing the everloving shit out of dogs, Gene counted some 15 of the mangy bastards (and bitches, where applicable) bobbing through the trees.

"DON'! CHU! FUCK! WIT'! ME!" Ezekiel said, slipping into his normal voice, slashes punctuating his buffout-fed rage, he used an old bowie knife handed down from his grandpa, so one of those slashes ended in a dog getting its head sliced off.

Gene, always a bit disturbed by how pissed off Ezekiel got when he had buffout, didn't notice the dog about to smash into him until it did, Gene hit the ground at a good angle though, and managed to grab the mutt's head and throw it to the side, he then drew his pistol and shot the thing in the neck. He turned to see what else had happened.

Degataga, a bit more resilient to drugs than most of the group, was more level-headed, leading and killing any dog that was stupid enough to go after him and not Ezekiel. Gene got up and ran to him, staying clear away from Ezekiel so he wouldn't get sliced.

"Thanks a lot for being so noisy, dukshanee!" Degataga said, firing at a dog, blowing its head off. He began to reload, "Cover me while that idiot embraces his roots."

"The HELL'D you just call me?!" Zeke and Gene said at the same time.

Gene shook his head and shot a few dogs, the group got rid of them with only a bite on Ezekiel's arm.

Ezekiel, still buffout-crazy, picked up the head of a dog and screamed to the heavens, "SEE! AIN'T NOTHIN' KILL EZEKIEL SUMAC HENSLEY! NOT NO DAMN DOGS! NOT NO DAMN RAIDERS! NOT-"

Ezekiel was interrupted when his forehead was rapidly acquainted with Gene's, causing the former to fall back into the mud of the hollow with his forehead bleeding, the severed dog's head went flying into a tree before rolling back down and smacking Ezekiel in his bite wound.

_""Are you out of your _**_stupid rottin' skull!? _**Dogs don't shoot no damn goo that melts people, dumbass!" he said, grabbing Ezekiel's knife out of his hand and then pulling up his over confident friend, "Now go sit near that puddle 'till your wounds stop bleedin'!" Gene said, pointing to a barrel of radioactive goo that had rolled down the hills however many decades ago.

"I ain't that much of a ghoul yet, Fitzwater," Ezekiel said, rubbing his forehead.

Gene mucked through his bag till he found a stimpack, "here, take this and go in the pond to help that along!"

Ezekiel took the needle and stuck himself, walking to the pond, tending his pride and his concussion.

Gene felt his end of the headbutt come on after that, he sat down on a tree root with a hiss of pain, looking around at all the dead dogs, he sighed, "Dega, mind startin' on skinnin' these things? Food's food."

Degataga slumped forward in disbelief, "Are you out of your fractured skull you dumb man?" he asked, "I gotta go tell my peo-"

"Galegenoh's already on it, now start skinnin' these things," Gene said, "We'll need supplies for... for when the power-armor guys get here..." Gene said, taking another look around at all the dogs, "You know," he began, softly, "when I was little, and I found that traveller with the Pip-Boy?"

Degataga sat down, putting his rifle to his side, carefully, he wordlessly beckoned his friend to continue.

"He had a journal on him, but I lost it a few days later... when, y'know, that deathclaw..." Gene shook himself, continuing again, "He wrote about these... guys called the Brotherhood to the North, pass Pitcher, the only thing they feared was deathclaws... and only when there was enough of 'em. Then, I guess he wasn't goin' nowhere in particular, 'cause the part after that was about some huge town southwest of here, he said that there was nothin' but people killin' each other and they didn't even have guns!"

Degataga raised an eyebrow, the only thing betraying his unease, "What are you gettin' at?"

Gene looked Degataga in the eye, with a confused look of fright like a deer, "Crazy people who killed for no reason with stuff that makes you a monster? Degataga, I ain't likin' our options here! Span's the people who're good at fightin' and shit but they're only good with any dumbass raiders that go past the Glowfield! These new guys are different! They're dumbass raiders with some smartass general's suits!"

Degataga spoke softly, with a monotone, "Father in Heaven."

Ezekiel shouted back, still speaking normal, "So what the Hell are we gonna do? Run? Them idjits in the Ville are gonna! What else we gonna do? Ask those fuckers in Hunkee to just give us some armor!?"

Gene shouted in return, "I'll just tell the Council and you'll just tell Yvonne!

"That ol' bag ain't gonna do shit! She ain't done shit for the... what year is it? Screw it, she's at _least_ 300 years old by now!"

Degataga stood up, and wordlessly went to skinning any dogs that didn't look to sick or filled with tumors.

Ezekiel shot up off the ground, "Aw Hell," he said, "I gotta go tell Ruth! Which one of us had the buffout?"

Degataga spoke up after stuffing a dog pelt in his bag, "We ran out, might be able to find some in the jet den."

"Alright, dont' tell anybody I'm headin' there," Ezekiel said, as he walked off.

Gene watched him disappear over the top of the hollow, then stared at Degata for a moment before joining him in skinning the dogs, when Degataga smacked himself in the head with a free hand with an exasperated look on his face.

"Dammit, I better go into Eucha, Chief's gonna want a meeting with the town, Gene, I guess you're gonna have to head home alone," He spoke low as he went over the top of the hill, "Sorry, friend."

"S'alright man," Gene said, "We'll meet on Monkey Island in two days, I'll get Zeke before then, he ain't gonna leave Vinita I'm guessin'."

Gene took some dog hides and dog meat and headed back down the roads until he met up with Mr. Morris, wondering along the way if two days was enough time before them raiders showed up.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: For whatever reason, I wasn't able to upload with copy n paste like I usually do, so I'm sorry if this looks wierd, PM me any issues that I may have missed.<p>

Note: Gene ain't very articulate, so that bit with the journal might not sound as intimidating as it should be. Stay tuned next time for personal problems!

Reviews and critique appreciated and encouraged.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Preparation

A day later, Gene was back in Grove, and sat on the shore of the lake next to one of the bigger bridges, it wasn't broken, but it was nameless, a horribly weary-looking thing that seemed to cry for repair, but there wasn't enough around to fix it.

Gene was told by Mr. Morris that, for a variety of reasons, he couldn't talk to the Council about this, not even his uncle Seth, too serious for anybody other than the old folks, he said. Bullshit, but Morris didn't hide it, it was something that that bastard from Span wrote, some call about a favor, secrecy, that crap.

Gene sat on a rock that was in turn sitting on other rocks, he was fishing. It was the same rock he knew that his ancestors had fished from, all the way back to 1895, near 400 years ago, he fished there when he didn't have anything to do, which wasn't that often, most of the time he was hunting, walking, talking, babysitting his baby cousins, that kinda thing.

Gene had his fishing line strung up from a tree, he didn't bring his fishing pole today, no, he needed to concentrate.

Mainly on why the Hell he didn't try and convince his friends to say, why the thought to go with Ezekiel didn't cross his mind, why he didn't think for more than 10 damn minutes about his friends.

Though this was followed by him beating himself up for not focusing on his family, his cousins, he didn't give two shits about them yesterday either!

Gene saw his line twitch, so he braced himself against a rock and started pulling the thing in, it was a runt, so he sliced a chunk off and threw it back out into the water, maybe he'd get food for the evening that way.

He looked up into the sky, it was clear, a beautiful day, really, he could hear crows cawing, though he mainly kept an ear out for garlurks, close as he was to town, those things were either brave or stupid.

Gene didn't think of much for a good while, being melodramatic wasn't a good thing to be, Ezekiel had his wife to worry about, and Galegenoh and Degataga had whatever weird Cherokee things to attend to.

Gene looked out west, down and over the lake, it was calm, quiet, no wind today, which was a rare thing. He wondered how his people had gone so long with being calm, nobody talked about wars, the book the Council kept didn't say anything apart from them raiders 30 years ago. Gene wasn't scared for himself, he was scared for the lake. It was peaceful. Sure, it had killer animals, but that was nature, nature was supposed to be peaceful. Now it was gonna have people getting put in buckets or urns or the ground because some other people had guns.

It never crossed Gene's mind that the people in power armor might not be bad people, because simply everybody that he'd ever met or seen from outside Grand Lake had been bad. That trader from down south was a liar, that other traveller was a pervert, and even the dead Vaulter he found had done some pretty fucked up things, if his journal had any truth to it.

Gene looked east, and wondered if those people in the Ville really would run like Ezekiel said. They wouldn't do that, right? They were lake people same as everybody else.

Gene sat for a good while, though how long that was he didn't really know, and then grabbed his line, it hadn't so much as twitched.

He walked back up to his house, through his town, looking at all the buildings again from a distance, was that dream a premonition? He didn't know, he had forgotten most of it, he just remembered wanting to break things. He saw a Nuka-Cola bottle on the ground and chucked it as hard as he could, it landed with a less than satisfying crash. He got to the store of the town, an old Super-Duper Mart that everybody cleaned out and then used to hold building supplies. Ken was inside, and at the drug counter stood Charlie.

"What'll ya have, Gene?" Charlie said, Gene had promised not to tell anybody about the raiders, and he intended on keeping that promise, still felt weird to not tell people about how other people just got turned to gel and goop a day ago.

Gene was about to say his usual order, but then felt in his pockets, he had a fair amount of caps, and he figured his friends would prepare by scrounging for stuff as well.

Gene stretched his lips out, something he did when he was in thought, drawing his mouth into a thin line, eyes narrowing, he spoke, "I need psycho, buffout, and stimpacks," Gene thought of Galegenoh's arm stump, "And doctor's bags, or at least some string and a needle."

Charlie laughed, "You gonna get into a fight? Psycho's some pretty hard shit."

Gene laughed back, a little stilted, but Gene didn't laugh much, and Charlie wasn't the brightest, so it worked, "Nah, gotta teach my little shitlin' cousins how to take care of themselves, gonna take 'em out hunting, y'know, help their parents, I'm just paranoid, sometimes I think I'm more worried bout them kids then their parents."

Charlie shrugged, his old face in a smile, "Sure thing, just gimme a minute," he said, Gene figured he just didn't care what he did, money was money, and there wasn't much gossip in teaching kids to hunt, Gene just hoped the old fool wouldn't question why Gene needed fuckin' psycho on a huntin' trip.

"Say..." Charlie said, laying out three psychos, two bottles of buffout, and 5 stimpacks, and a very pitiful looking doctor's bag.

"_Oh don't you even-"_ Gene thought.

"I was wondering, would you mind delivering some other drugs for me?"

Gene sighed mentally, "Nah, can't, Mr. Morris has the crew on lock for three days, some shit with the council." Yeehaw half-truths or whatever.

Charlie rolled his eyes, "World's dead, government still stinks."

Gene handed the man his caps, "You said it, man, see ya." he said, taking his chems and leaving.

Gene's house was just a 10 minute walk from the Super Duper Mart, a one-story house with four rooms, raised a foot off the ground by concrete, the roof was blown off, and what was an addition had been reduced to an overly large patio, it was at least 400 years old, and Gene kept wondering how the hell it hadn't fallen in, the damn thing had newspaper for insulation.

Gene went into the small bathroom that, since plumbing was a premium thing on Grand Lake, he used as a gun closet, three very difficult locks on the door, he joked with his friends that the locks were more expensive than his guns.

He took inventory, loads and loads of .45 ammo, he was the only who used it, and backup ammo for his hunting rifle, worse came to worse he could barter with that, probably, maybe, let's hope it don't get that bad. Everybody else used 9mm or 10mm.

Gene checked the other weapons he had, his hunting rifle, of course, and his dad's old magnum, a beast of a weapon, but he couldn't ever find ammo for it, he kept it more or less as a memento of his dad. The .45 he used was his mom's, pistol packin' fools, the both of 'em, that's what his grandpa always called 'em.

Gene picked up the magnum, and put it in his bag, and grabbed the 24 bullets he had in reserve in case somethin' big like a deathclaw wandered into town, or near his house, and walked out of his house towards Vinita. He figured he could crash at Zeke's place and then the both of 'em could head to Monkey Island and wait for the others.

He also figured he and Zeke could go and get some books on warfare.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Planning

Gene was at Ezekiel's house a few hours later, knocking on the door.

"Hey Zeke! Got somethin' to tell ya!" Gene said, he was surprised to find Ruth open the door instead.

Ruth was, in a word, calm. Her eyes, face, all that, not a point on her expressions, she wasn't a knockout, but she was pretty, she was in Pre-War clothing, more for comfort than for fashion, but she carried herself the same as anybody would in armor, she was pretty small, compared to the people Gene hung out with, she was five-ten, but very skinny. She was also a bit older than Ezekiel, she was nearing 25 while Ezekiel was still 21.

"Evenin' Gene," She said.

Gene looked around, a little surprised, "Shit, it _is _evenin', ain't it? Where's Zeke?"

"...He told me what happened, told the Old Ghouls what happened... down in Span, I mean," She stared at Gene with a worry in her eyes, "Did... did some of 'em really get turned to goo?"

Gene took a bit to answer, "Yeah, yeah they did, I didn't see it, but... there was a bucket or two they had next to their dead, they had crosses painted on the side... Spans don't toss the Cross around like that."

Ruth put her hand to her mouth, looking shocked, Ruth didn't ever look shocked or worried and it bothered Gene.

"Where's Zeke, Ruth?" Gene asked, putting a hand on Ruth's shoulder.

Ruth composed herself, "He oughta be back soon, I'll get you guys some beer."

Gene went into their house, a small thing, four rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a living room. They went into the kitchen, which had a basic table Ezekiel had made, Gene sat down at it, Ruth grabbed three beers and then sat with Gene, handing one to him.

Gene decided not to speak, waiting instead for Ruth to ask him questions, which took a good five minutes, Gene only taking a swig of beer out of nervousness.

"So then, why are ya here?" Ruth asked.

"Well, Zeke ran off before I could tell him this, but me and Galegenoh and Degataga decided we oughta meet somewhere to talk about them raiders, and I came up here because I wanted to go look in the library for some books on how to fight in a war, figured all the politicians'd want to know how to fight, since we ain't done it in so long."

Ruth gave a soft laugh, "Yeah, those raiders are probably a bit before your Council's time, huh?"

Gene thought, "Yeah, Uncle Seth woulda been 15 when they showed up. But even then, if there's a book about fighting power armor then we oughta look out for it."

"Those jackasses in Hunkee probably have something," Ruth said, "Speaking of which, Zeke said he was going to the library, so he might find something there, also, how'd he get that big gash on his head? He just said he was being stupid when I asked him about it."

Gene was saved by Ezekiel opening the door and saying, "Hey honey! I got the books and I found some food on a fera-" he stopped when he saw Gene, Gene looked and saw that Ezekiel had four big-ass books in his arms.

"Hey, Gene," Ezekiel asked, a little confused, "s'goin' on?"

"Nothin' man," Gene said, ignoring Ruth's question, he noticed that Zeke's forehead didn't heal so much as stop bleeding, must've been the ghoul in him, "Just wanted to tell you that we're meeting out on Monkey Island tomorrow to talk."

"Bout what?" Ezekiel said, throwing the books down, he dug in his pocket for something,

"War, and you know damn well at least one of the towns is gonna want proof that this raider threat is real."

Ezekiel laughed, and brought a very tiny book out of his pocket, "The Art of War, by Sun... Tahzoo? Pocket Edition" he said, slowly reading the title, "Don't know why they made books this tiny, but hey, this oughta help, and those Old Fools ain't dead set on them being a threat either."

Gene continued, "Well there's only one way them raiders coulda come from if they hit Span where they did."

"Where?" Ezekiel asked, sitting down.

"The Glowfield."

Ruth slammed her fist down on the table, surprising the hell out of Gene and Ezekiel, "There ain't no damn way I'm letting Ezekiel go out into the Glowfield for some proof! We can just talk the Old Ghouls into preparing."

Ezekiel spoke, "Honey, I'm half-ghoul already, what's the problem?"

"We still ain't got no kids is one! And plus what if you do find the raiders? What would I do if you died?"

Ezekiel looked shocked, "Yeah, that's a nice thought!" He said with some bite behind his bark, "Honey, everybody else is either being kept in the dark or too scared or disbelievin' to do shit! Everybody in town gave me some pretty shitty looks for sayin' we might get attacked! Nobody else is gonna do it! And hell, you know for a damn fact that nobody but me an' Gene an' Dega an' Galeh are good enough at scoutin' to get this shit done!"

Gene, realizing he had been shoved out of the conversation, snuck his way out the house and sat on the front porch so he wouldn't be dragged back into the conversation.

Gene, hoping Ezekiel, who's way of words worked with his male peers, would convince his wife to let him go on the journey. The Glowfield couldn't be all that bad after two centuries, but he was sure there'd be pockets they'd need Ezekiel to trudge through.

It got eerily quiet about 15 minutes after Gene stepped outside, and Gene walked back in to find Ezekiel sitting at the table alone, when Ezekiel saw him, he waved him over and motioned to the stack of books.

"Alright, we'll read a bit through these things and see what all we can learn, they're half rotted anyways, so it probably ain't much."

Gene nodded and grabbed book that's title was worn away like so many other pre-war books, he opened it and then said "So, uh, how'd the fight go?"

Ezekiel didn't look up from the little pocket book he was busy squintin' at, and said, "Wasn't a fight, Gene, just part of bein' married, I said a stupid thing, but I can head to the Glowfield."

Gene nodded, and the two went back to reading.

"Man," Ezekiel said, putting the pocketbook down, "Figures the only parts that are in the book are the parts about philosophy," he said, "Too hard to read anyways, must've been old even when the bombs fell."

Gene was reading through the book he had, "Heh, me and Galegenoh read through this one a year or so ago, it ain't bad, talks about these things called "wolf holes," ya sharpen some sticks, cover 'em in shit, and stick 'em in the ground so someone'll step on 'em!"

Ezekiel gave a short laugh, "Jesus, guess people fought dirty back then, huh? The shit s'posed to make 'em sick?"

"Yeah, it also basically says to never let up, like, the other guys follow, you run, they stop, you take potshots, they run, you run after."

The two talked about that book, though the two, quickly forgetting the situation at hand, quickly went to talking about horrid things they read about from the Old World, like torture devices and nerve gas, nothing useful to their plight, except to keep their spirits up, talking about bad stuff they'd never see.

The next morning, Gene was told by Ezekiel to head out to Monkey Island on his own, saying he was gonna scrounge around the irradiated bits of Vinita for medical supplies for a couple hours.

Gene obliged, Monkey Island was a good few hours from Vinita by walk, and Gene figured he could use just a bit more time to his thoughts. Though a funny thing happened in those few hours, Gene didn't have much more to think about, he realized about halfway there that he had beaten most of the stuff he had worried about to death, so he got to Monkey Island before he realized it.

Before the War, Monkey Island had been a resort spot, part of Grove, separated by about 20 minutes of boating and about a half a day of walking, the Shangri-La Marina had been a pretty bustling part of the Grand Lake nightlife, most just didn't go there because they were decent folk, or so Gene had heard as a passed down story through his family

But the Marina was dangerous, the garlurk nest was there, near as anybody could figure, so pretty much all the shore's of Monkey Island, save for the most northern spot that connected to the mainland (it was a peninsula, not an island, Gene never got that) was garlurk spawning ground.

Thankfully, hidden away under coastal trees and behind and over boulders and under the soil, was a cave, that garlurks were too big to get too, and Gene and his friends stumbled upon that cave once when they were 14 and 15 between them, and they made it their hideout, before they grew up and stopped seeing the need to go to a secret place to have fun in.

Gene was at the creek that led to it, he saw the old seven pointed star that Degataga painted onto the tall rock, Gene went in between each of the boulder's and through the knee or thigh deep water until he got to the mouth of the cave.

Nothing was left in it, nothing besides a long cold firepit in one of the shallow depressions in the cave, Gene brought out the Pip-Boy he kept with him, and turned on the flashlight, he knew how to do that much at least, and shined around the cave, and he went over to the wall at the back, the cave must have been pretty secret, or maybe it was unearthed by the Great War, as it didn't have any graffiti or any litter like all the other caves around Grand Lake did, it was blank.

Gene went to starting a fire up for the fireplace, and once the flames started going, he remembered all the times that he and his friends would just come and talk, those were the best, also to play chess, with what bullshit rulebooks they could piece together, that was a fun experiment before they lost the damn pieces they whittled.

Gene, having been through a bit in the past few days, didn't realize how fucking tired he was, and so he didn't notice the garlurk that had noticed his fire until it was right at the mouth of the cave.

It was a huge thing for its kind, about 7 foot even and probably about north of 500 pounds. Like all garlurks, it had a second row of teeth above it's upper jaw, like the lines a human gets when they smile, but made of teeth, and set on an eerily reptilian head. The body was narrow, but clearly powerful, and covered in armor hard scales, you don't cut and clean garlurks, you bake 'em whole. It's eyes were big pits, soulless things covered in a shell so the black of their eyes didn't seep out, or so Gene's cousin Dorli would say to him when he was little.

Gene pulled his dad's magnum, hoping to kill the thing before it charged, he didn't, however, and had to sidestep it to avoid getting crushed, it ran into the cave wall that had been behind Gene with a thud, he took aim at it, ready to shoot it's head when it turned around, but then Gene felt something huge and heavy slam into his side, knocking him onto the floor and flinging the magnum from his hands, Gene mentally punched himself for letting that happen twice in a week.

Gene turned onto his back and stood up to see what had tackled him, another garlurk, and pulled his .45 backup, letting loose a full clip at the second gar's head, killing it with an explosion of brain and blood and scales.

Wait, shit, there are _two _gars, Gene, you're regular panic strategy won't work here!

When Gene realized his fatal error, he contemplated running out of the cave, but when he looked, he saw the silhouette of a person aiming a shotgun at the other gar. With the wonderfully loud boom of a shotgun, the other garlurk lay dead, alongside it's friend.

"The hell are you?" Gene asked, ringing in his ears.

"Galegenoh," said Galegenoh's voice, "And Gene, turn that damn light off."

Gene hadn't realized he had left his Pip-Boy light on.

Gene turned it off, and laughed, "Well sorry! Garlurks never got in here before!" he looked around at the cave walls and sighed, "guess the rocks must've gotten moved or something.

Galegenoh laid her stuff onto the floor of the cave, and sat down against the far wall, Gene mimicked her actions after picking up his revolver, sitting a good yard away.

"Where's Dega?" Gene asked.

"He stopped by the pharmacy in Grove, he's probably an hour behind me," she said with an annoyed look. Gene put his thumb and finger over his eye, "Dammit, he _know's _Charlie don't like Cherokees..." He said, angry, he breathed in deep to calm down, "Eh, that works out alright, Zeke's an hour behind too, he was gonna scrounge Northern Vinita for medicine."

Galegenoh and Gene sat around for a minute, quiet, both tired from walking, Gene rubbing his side from getting tackled.

"We gonna cook those garlurk or not?" Galegenoh asked, "Shame to waste it."

"Heh! Sure, if you feel like draggin' 500 pounds right now."

"I can wait on that."

The two scooched closer to the fire, hoping to dry off their clothes at the least while they waited.

"Remember in them books we read that said that there were those guns that shot out fire?" Gene asked, softly, "I wonder if the raiders got any of those."

"I hope not," Galegenoh said.

"Galegenoh, can I ask you something?" Gene asked.

"Go ahead, Gene."

"...Are you scared at all? Zeke doesn't seem scared, but he's always good at hiding anything that isn't being angry," Gene said.

"Degataga's pretty shook up about this whole thing, but I think he's already prepared for it, in his own way."

"And you?" Gene pressured.

Galegenoh turned to look at Gene, and Gene turned to meet her eyes, and he saw in the fire nothing that would show fear to anyone, she was Galegenoh, she didn't get scared, or so Gene thought.

"I'm scared as shit, Gene."

"What are you scared of?" Gene asked, a nervous chuckle mixed in.

Galegenoh looked back at the fire, "Remember that doctor's book we read, the one about how the brain worked? I'm worried about that PTSD stuff, I don't dream like you do, and I don't wanna, dreams don't do nothin' but make you think about stuff that doesn't even matter. I don't want dreams that make me feel sick or scared," Galegenoh looked at her arm stump, "I ain't never felt like I lost an arm because of you, Gene, but those books say that people need a doctor to get through that PTSD crap." She stared at her arm stump for a few seconds.

"Man, screw books!" Gene said, grabbing Galegenoh's arm stump, staring into Galegenoh's eyes, "I helped you get through _this,_ you helped me get over my fears," Gene smiled widely, "Did we do anything a book said to do that? All we need books for is to know how to survive, not how to live."

Galegenoh smiled, "yeah, guess you're right, Gene."

Gene punched Galegenoh in the shoulder, she returned the gesture, and they waited mostly silently for their friends to show up.

* * *

><p>Reviews appreciated! Hell, just PM me your critiques!<p> 


End file.
